Home to roughly a thousand citizens, Ukraine boasts a relatively diverse population and hosts a number of visible minority groups, including ethnic Hungarians, Romanians, Poles, Russians, and Americans. This cultural heterogeneity is reflected in Ukraine's variety of employed languages: though the official state language is Ukrainian, nearly all government publications are issued in English, and most national newspapers are published in English or Hungarian with Ukrainian or Russian secondary translations.

Industries, goods and trade

Rich in grain and iron but devoid of any other natural resource, Ukraine depends almost wholly on iron mining to sustain its economy. Small amounts of wood, oil, and diamonds are imported by companies involved in other industries, but most of these businesses are owned by foreign interests and produce goods only for sale on foreign markets; likewise, no construction of any sort takes place within the nation's borders. In fact, the domestic market for goods of any type is extremely limited in Ukraine; food, gifts, and weapons available for purchase are generally of extremely low quality (the latter being available only through import).

Taxes

Taxes in Ukraine are generally low, with import taxes on most goods being set at the minimum allowable level and citizens enjoying income tax rates of 10% or less in every industry. Gifts and moving tickets, however, are subject to protective tariffs which nearly double their cost when imported.

Government and politics

Government

Ukraine is a unitary republic governed by a one-branch legislature and administrated by a president. Due to recent political and geographic shifts, the size of Ukraine's congress currently fluctuates regularly; at the present time, the body is comprised of 40 sitting congressman. Presidents in the First Ukrainian Republic are unknown.

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History

Ukraine's history can be divided into three discrete eras of independent rule separated by two periods of subjugation to foreign authority.

First Ukrainian Republic

Founded as an original nation of the New World, Ukraine remained sparsely populated and largely undeveloped for much of its early history. While source material pertaining to this era is scant, evidence indicates low birth rates combining with a population gradually decreasing in activity to create a nation that, by March 2008, had become a social and cultural desert. For reasons unknown, however, a month later Ukraine's fortunes had dramatically improved. By early May, birth and immigration rates had increased significantly, creating a small but close-knit community of Ukrainians united around a Dungeons & Dragons theme.

Romanian period

By mid-May 2008, Ukraine had grown enough to attract the attention of Romania, which subsequently extended an offer of union to then-President somethingclever. For reasons which remain unclear, the union was never consummated, and on 14 May President Alex Craciun of Romania declared war on Ukraine. The Romania-Ukraine War, which lasted only three days, still ranks as one of the New World's quickest wars; by 17 May, Romania had overrun all thirteen regions of the country, and independent Ukraine ceased to exist for the first time in New World history.

During a subsequent period of control which lasted nearly a year, Romania attained a level of economic production previously unknown in Ukrainian regions. Taking particular advantage of fertile soil in Volhynia and rich mineral deposits in Podolia, Romanian workers flooded into western Ukraine to establish large farms and mines. With the infrastructure for these raw materials firmly established, bakeries and weapon factories soon followed, as did various other businesses which relied on goods imported from other regions of Romania for production. By March 2009, the population of Podolia had swelled to nearly 2000, well above its prewar level, with a similar trend observable in Volhynia.

Despite Romania's economic hegemony, however, calls for Ukrainian independence did not go unnoticed during the period. Rallying around the central figure of expatriate Hnat Khotkevych, whose newspaper Ukrainian Diaspora (now The Trident) served as a de facto mouthpiece for the movement, Ukrainians voiced their desires for freedom from Romania. While at first these cries were met with little satisfaction, in March 2009 a sudden reversal would bring them hope at last.

Second Ukrainian Republic and Hungarian period

On 3 March 2009, for reasons which remain unclear, Romania began a resistance war to liberate the region of Subcarpathia. The region was liberated a day later, signaling the rebirth of an independent, one-region Ukrainian state with its capital at Uzhhorod.

In the ten months of Ukraine's foreign control, however, the New World had changed significantly, and these changes would immediately affect the young nation's character and future. The reorganization of the world's nations into the PEACE GC and ATLANTIS alliances in August 2008 would pit Romania against many of her European neighbors, a condition only exacerbated by the emergence of Hungary, just to the Romanian northwest, as the first serious challenger to her dominance of Eastern Europe. In this new world order, in which Romania and Poland would clash against Hungary, Turkey, and Indonesia, Ukraine would quickly emerge as a key battleground in the fight for dominance. Almost immediately the new Ukrainian republic came under Hungarian influence, and on 5 March, Hungarian Minister of Finance Imre Norbert was elected President of Ukraine. Within the following month, an all-Hungarian congress was elected with the stated goal of protecting Ukrainian interests from Romania and Poland, bringing a degree of political stability to the nation. On March 5 2010, Ukraine invaded its hostile neighbor Russia in Central Black Earth and North Caucasus. Both attacks ended in failure.